With the International Fight League semi-finals drawing near, the contrast between the four teams left in contention is impossible to ignore. Not only are the training and coaching styles of all these teams unique, but their overall philosophies are as different as can be.

Editor’s Note: In honor of the 4th of July celebration of America, we thought it only fitting to have one of the IFL’s most fervent patriots answer your questions about the state of the nation. Don Frye doesn’t pull punches (as plenty of men can attest to), so he gives it to us straight – the good and the bad – in this special holiday edition.

When pressed for details on the injury that kept him off the fight card for his team’s final regular season outing, Sabres heavyweight Wayne Cole first chuckled sheepishly and said, “You’re not going to print this, right?”

Hunched forward on the edge of his seat at ringside, Ben Rothwell poked furiously at a cell phone that looked tiny is his hands. Inside the ring before him the action raged on, and the playoff status of Rothwell and the Quad Cities Silverbacks was looking grim.